Liverpool’s most accurate crosser: young talent analysed

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Amid the debate about whether Liverpool would be better served playing Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, another question remained: who would replace him at right-back? That question became more pressing when Alexander-Arnold picked up an injury in January of the 2023/24 campaign. Jürgen Klopp’s answer was to call upon 20-year-old academy graduate Conor Bradley. After starting the League Cup semi final first leg against Fulham, he made his Premier League debut in a potentially tricky trip to Bournemouth. The Northern Irish youngster acquitted himself well in a 4-0 win, earning starts in the next two cup games. After that, he did not look back.

Next came the visit of Chelsea in the Premier League. Unfazed, Bradley was player of the match, scoring his first goal for Liverpool and contributing two assists in a 4-1 victory. With Alexander-Arnold ruled out for an extended period, Bradley was a regular starter in February and March, as Liverpool competed on four fronts. He even picked up his first winner’s medal, in the League Cup final victory against Chelsea.

“He has saved Liverpool a lot of money,” said Jamie Carragher. “A lot of people, myself included, have been saying for a long time now that with Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, because he’s so good, it’s very difficult to bring someone in as back-up as they know they’re not going to play more often than not. And [usually] you’ve still got to pay good money for someone like that.”

Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have analysed Bradley’s style of play, including his position and technical capabilities…

Technical analysis

Bradley is a right-footed wide defender who has played as a full-back in a back four and as a right wing-back in a back five. He is an impressive athlete who is able to accelerate into spaces with purpose. With the ball, he can drive into space around his direct opponent and back inside, often using a disguised touch. His ability to accelerate into space also helps him receive towards the touchline, from where he makes regular movements to help build from deep and also progress the ball forward.

His acceleration is also seen prior to crossing, where he can deliver a variety of quality balls across opponents’ penalty areas. With explosive movements, he is able to work the ball around or beyond his direct opponent, creating a window to cross. There, he is able to demonstrate his impressive ball-striking. He can whip deliveries in, drive them across goal, cut back, or stand the ball up to the back post, adapting to the runs and positioning of teammates (below).

Bradley’s driving with the ball into larger spaces, plus his delicate dribbling to carry the ball away from pressure, are further examples of his ability to accelerate away from opponents. His ball-carrying can also help with playing around an opposing press. He receives well when up against the touchline, quickly opening his hips as he receives before taking touches around and beyond his direct opponent (below). From there, he can progress the ball forward.

Bradley has also shown he is comfortable taking more frequent touches back inside, which is ideal when wide progress isn’t immediately available. This helps him connect with central teammates, especially the centre-forward, while also working well around rotations in central areas. When narrowed, he can still cross from an inside-channel position, or open up opportunities to switch play. In the early stages of his Liverpool first-team career, he has tended not to switch play. Given his quality on the ball, it’s likely that this will develop with further appearances.

Out of possession

Without the ball, Bradley is extremely aggressive in jumping and closing down space (below). He will often tightly follow his direct opponent to stop them from turning as they receive, especially on vertical passes into feet. Whenever the ball has progressed beyond him, Bradley works back well. He is quick to back-press and double up on opponents, more often than not supporting his closest centre-back teammate.

When isolated, Bradley can delay attackers well, allowing for others to back him up, or buying time for them to recover back into shape. However, he is at his defensive best when he attempts to win the ball back early. He is well suited to aggressive counter-pressing, or an organised high-pressing strategy, thanks to his controlled yet aggressive duelling.

When his opponent carries the ball for a significant period and he is defending in a 1v1, he can get caught out through not using his arms enough. When opponents attempt to knock and run around or across his path, Bradley needs to impact his opponent more. That means subtle but still aggressive bumps into, or across, his opponent’s running path. This will make him a more solid defender of wide spaces.

Full-back

Bradley has played as a right-back for Liverpool, providing width and height in the attacking phase. This is similar to when Alexander-Arnold broke into the first team. Ahead on the right side of Liverpool’s front line, Harvey Elliott, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota have all variously drifted inside early, creating space for him to move high. As Liverpool look to overload the centre, Bradley found wide space to exploit, where he could deliver into teammates crashing the penalty area (below).

On the few occasions when the returning Mo Salah and Luis Díaz have occupied the wide-right role, Bradley has delayed his forward runs. He has then focused more on the timing of the movement itself. Here, he has waited until the winger received and held the ball, creating underlapping opportunities. Alternatively, the winger has driven inside early, fully committing the opposition left-back and creating overlapping moments for Bradley.

He has shown fantastic versatility in these moments, adapting his movements to what is happening ahead, while maintaining his impressive crossing. After 28 rounds of fixtures in the 2023/24 Premier League season, Bradley had the second-most crosses per 90 minutes at Liverpool (4.06 in his six starts), behind Kostas Tsimikas (4.25). He also had the best accuracy, at 52.38 per cent.

He has mostly defended on the outside of Ibrahima Konaté, with additional exposure alongside Jarell Quansah. Regardless of who is alongside him, Bradley has maintained his aggression, duelling, pressing and tenacity in covering his teammates. After Liverpool had played 28 Premier League games in the 2023/24 season, he had the best duel success rate (74.14 per cent) in the team. That put him ahead of second-placed Virgil van Dijk (70.3 per cent from 26 starts).

A large proportion of these successful challenges came when he jumped high to press. Bradley has supported his wide teammate pressing inwards, making him responsible for moving on to the opposing full-back, deep in the the opposition half. He has also shown he can cover inside, backing up central midfielders, such as Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo or Dominik Szoboszlai, as they jump high on to opposing centre-backs.

Wing-back

Bradley spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Bolton Wanderers in League One. There, he played as a right wing-back in Ian Evatt’s 3-5-2, or 3-4-1-2 structure. As with his early appearances at Liverpool, Bradley managed to work regular crosses (117 in total) into the front line. In fact, he nearly doubled the output of Bolton’s second-highest deliverer, putting him in the top 15 crossers in League One.

His ability to drive and dribble inwards, then cross from narrow positions or combine with central teammates, was notable. Here, Bradley was able to showcase his explosive ability with the ball, coming back off the touchline before combining or penetrating through, around or over the opposition back line. Most of his chance creation and assists came from this; he ranked sixth for dribbles in League One and was in the top 30 for total through balls in the 2022/23 season.

Without the ball, he dropped into a back line of five. The extra centre-back gave him licence to jump out, aggressively press wide and duel high up the pitch – perfectly suiting his defensive attributes. Indeed, he recorded the joint 10th most defensive-duels in League One, many coming as he aggressively moved up the right side.

Bolton’s double pivot, number 10 and centre-forward covered the middle of the pitch, often limiting how play could be worked back inside from the wide areas. This gave Bradley the opportunity to chase, hunt and duel against his direct opponent as they looked for a central pass. If he regained the ball, he could then use his central teammates to set up counter-attacks.

With a single number 10, there were also inside-channel spaces available for Bradley to press into, then drive through after regains. From there, he could dribble, cross and create from a narrowed attacking position.

Such was his impact, he was voted Bolton Wanderers Player of the Year by the club’s supporters, while receiving both the Players’ Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards. These are accolades he has built on with his first extended run in the Liverpool first team.

To learn more about the technical and tactical aspects of football, and gain insights from coaches at the top of the game, visit CV Academy

Author: The Coaches' Voice